Search, Tags, Social Media icons

occrp

The cold-blooded murder of Slovak investigative journalist Jan Kuciak was also a cold slap across the face of modern Europe. That the public watchdogs -- the beloved members of a profession that is sometimes more reviled than admired -- could be halted simply by a brutal act of violence seems to portend a further breakdown of European values. There has been much handwringing about what to do.

As soon as journalists published the last investigation of their murdered colleague, Slovak reporter Jan Kuciak, they immediately focused on another important issue: Why was he killed? And how did his killers know that he was working on a story about them?

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project condemns a raid at the offices of Botswana’s Center for Investigative Journalism (INK) and the harassment of Joel Konopo, a founding and managing partner of the center.

Jaroslav Strnad, the chief financial backer of the Czech president, has been secretly snapping up arms stockpiles and factories throughout the Balkans with the help of a cast of notorious local characters. The buy-up has included tens of millions of rounds of old ammunition of a type so unreliable that a previous attempt to sell it inspired a Hollywood movie.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is the Person of the Year for 2017, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an organization that has for six years recognized the individual who has done the most in the world to advance organized criminal activity and corruption.

Corruption is everywhere. An estimated $1 trillion is paid in bribes and another $2.6 trillion is stolen worldwide every year, according to the United Nations. These incredible sums make up five percent of the world’s economy. And they mostly come out of the pockets of the poorest of the more than seven billion inhabitants of our planet.

The Paradise Papers is a major new leak of documents from two offshore services firms based in Bermuda and Singapore, as well as from 19 corporate registries maintained by governments in secret offshore jurisdictions. The documents were obtained by the Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which organized a collaborative investigation with dozens of outlets across the world, including the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).​

A joint investigation by Efecto Cocuyo and OCCRP ​explores the Orinoco Mining Arc — the Venezuelan government's controversial attempt to find new sources of wealth — and the devastating effects of the mining on the people who live there.

The Bucharest office of RISE Project, an Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) partner, underwent an unannounced inspection by the anti-fraud bureau of Romania’s National Fiscal Agency (ANAF) even as important Romanian politicians threatened the outlet in both public and private.

Officers from the Romanian Anti-Fraud Authority at the offices of RISE Project, OCCRP's Romanian partner, during a surprise inspection. (Photo: RISE Project)

A special report published Wednesday urges the Ukrainian government to step up its commitment to investigating the July 2016 murder of Pavel Sheremet, a prominent investigative reporter who was killed in Kiev by an improvised explosive device planted under his car.

Authorities in Azerbaijan and Georgia are facing mounting criticism for their possible role in the apparent kidnapping of Afgan Mukhtarli, the Azerbaijani journalist who disappeared from Tbilisi on May 29 and was next seen two days later being led into a Baku courtroom.

Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli is brought to court in Baku, Azerbaijan on May 31 after disappearing from Tbilisi, Georgia, where he lives. (Photo: Reuters/Aziz Karimov)

Bombardier is a Canadian transportation conglomerate that controls Bombardier Transportation, a Swedish engineering firm and one of the world’s largest producers of railway signaling equipment. Bombardier technology makes the trains run from Eurasia to Latin America, and its globe-spanning business shows no signs of slowing down.